Mission Hill in Roxbury will host the third WiFi access point in Boston Main Streets districts. The first two hotspots are located in Roslindale and Washington Gateway Main Streets. According to Mission Hill Main Streets director Maggie Cohn, the project benefits small businesses in two ways: they will have free access to the Internet and… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Commentary
Wi-Fi Gives Kids Access To Unchaperoned Net
New portable gaming devices with wireless capabilities like Sony’s PSP (PlayStation portable system) and Nintendo DS are raising concerns among parents. Parents have less control on these gadgets unlike with PCs, which allow them a number of options to restrict or monitor their kids’ activities, such as installing Net Nanny, a program to block pornography… Continue Reading
Ready For WiMAX?
WiMax is expected to enjoy extensive adoption, particularly with the development of chips and equipment based on IEEE’s 802.16 standard. Adaptix recently unveiled its BX-3000 Micro basestation and SX-300 mobile terminals while Aperto already received WiMAX Forum certification for its PacketMAX 100 and 300 customer-premise-equipment (CPE) units. Though only few services exist, more and more… Continue Reading
Clearwire Gets More Dough
In the past two months, Clearwire has received over $1.1 billion to develop a nationwide WiMax network. It won $900 million in investment from IntelCapital and Motorola Ventures for the project in July. It secured a further $100 million from two investors and $125 million in debt financing from Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, and JP… Continue Reading
Intel Hopes New WiMax Will Reverse Drop In Sales
Intel is banking on WiMax to boost its declining sales. The company will provide the technology to Sprint Nextel Corp., which announced that it will spend $3 billion to create a new network based on the standard. Intel saw a 13 percent annual increase in sales due to its Centrino chips between 2003 and 2005.… Continue Reading
Wi-Fi Mobiles Offer Free Calls – All Over The World
Mobiboo and Belkin are now offering handsets that can perform VoIP calls using connection to wireless networks, i.e., The Cloud for Mobiboo and Skype for the latter. Calls from a Mobiboo handset — either the £99 Mobiboo F1000 unit or the £179 Mobiboo F3000 model — to other Mobiboo users are free, those to UK… Continue Reading
Speedier Wireless On The Way Via 4G
3G is barely deployed and now there is talk about 4G. Sprint is aiming to use WiMax as thier 4G technology of choice, expecting to put $3 Billion into the technology in the next 2 years. Faster speeds are one factor for the choice of WiMax but chipset costs and availability have also influenced the… Continue Reading
WLANs Break The Enterprise Security Model
Aruba CEO Dominic Orr expects wireless connectivity to become a standard segment of enterprise net infrastructure and will therefore be less interesting. Orr said: “‘WLAN’ is, if not dead, then uninteresting. Once it’s ‘spec-able’ by the IEEE, most of the profit goes to the silicon makers. Eighteen months after 802.11n is standardized, the WLAN is… Continue Reading
Google Wi-Fi Gift Has A Catch
Google’s municipal WiFi project in Mountain View, CA. has a catch, no live tech support. The network is being provided for 5 years at a cost of millions as a ‘perk’ to the city, but as the saying goes; “you get what you pay for”. The free network will not have any live tech support… Continue Reading
A Net Pioneer’s Wireless Wager
After Earthlink, Sky Dayton is now focusing on two new ventures, Boingo Wireless and Helio, both of which have tight connections with the pioneering Internet service provider. Earthlink, which won contracts to build WiFi networks in cities such as New Orleans, San Francisco, and Anaheim, California, pays for its clients’ use of Boingo software. The… Continue Reading
Fingerprinting WiFi Could Secure MAC Addresses
Carleton University researcher Dr. Jeyanthi Hall has developed a new method that could end MAC address spoofing. Based on her radio frequency signal analysis for 15 devices, Hall found out that variations during the manufacturing process creates a unique signal for each of these devices. The signals were so distinct that she was able to… Continue Reading
Motorola Could Drive Growth With WiMax
The WiMax deal with Sprint Nextel could bring $210 million for Motorola in 2007 and $307 million the following year, according to Bear Stearns analyst Philip Cusick. Sprint recently announced the selection of of Motorola, along with Samsung, as the principal vendors for the new high-speed network that it plans to build. Cusick said: “While… Continue Reading
Wi-Fi Guidance Becomes Law In California
California lawmakers endorsed a bill that will require manufacturers of wireless internet equipment to provide guidance on data security for wireless connections. The legislation, which still needs Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s signature, is expected to take effect on October 1, 2007. Under the law, companies must ensure WiFi-capable products have warning labels — box stickers, special… Continue Reading
Demand For WiFi Equipment, Components Growing
Analysts expect the WiFi equipment market to become a $3 billion sector in the next three years. The reason: the emerging WiFi applications such as wireless game consoles, PDAs, cell phones and home entertainment systems. According to Chris Taylor, who heads the wireless components service at the Boston-based consultancy Strategy Analytics, “the market for WiFi… Continue Reading
Aeroplane Wi-Fi Could Fly Again
Panasonic announced it will offer wireless Internet service to airlines and the plan is to sell the service for $10 per flight. It is eyeing companies like Lufthansa, which used Boeing’s failed Connexion service. Panasonic strategic marketing director David Bruner said the firm is “determined to avoid one of the things that brought Connexion down  Continue Reading